The Story Of Tabeth-Lily
by 115Greyt-Hound115
Summary: What do you get when you put a stubborn, hot-headed fighter jet in the US Navy? A whole heap of trouble...
1. chapter 1

Late Saturday afternoon. The sun was shining bright through parted, white clouds. The breeze cool as it whipped up trees green leaves into the air. All was calm and peaceful... except for an area of tarmac. The ground cracked in various places to make way for uncut patches of grass. Where two young, female aircraft; an olive green AH-64 Apache and a small grey F/A-18/E Super Hornet both taxiied along at a relatively quick pace.

"Come on Sara! What's the worst that could happen? It's not like I haven't tried it before or anything." The excited jet said while smirking slightly, showing off white, little canines. Coming to a stop in front of the other female.

Sara, the sturdy built Apache. Rolled her dark hazel eyes at her friends amount of eagerness.

"Yeah. I know. But last time you almost ended up running into some old Cessna lady!"

Lily pouted. "Still. I _missed_ her. You're my BEST FRIEND Sara and you're not even really supporting me. I'm gonna be breaking records here! You just watch!"

"Yeah, yeah. I just wanna see you almost hit those trees over there." Sara's serious expression turned to one of playfulness.

"Sara! I'm not gonna almost hit the trees this time!" Tabeth-Lily rolled past her friend, slapping the helicopters rotor blades with her slightly folded wing as she passed to position herself on the runway.

She readied herself for a smooth and fast take off. Bright blue eyes narrowed in sheer concentration, wings straight and steady, and then slowly eased on her twin afterburners. Flames of yellow and purple flicking out behind her in a swirl of heat and colour.

Sara jumped back with a soft yelp. Surprised by the sudden heat and thunder-like roar of the F-18's engines.

Tabeth-Lily took a fleeting glance back at the Apache before suddenly accelerating into speeds beyond 100kph in under a few seconds.

In a split second, she was already quickly ascending up into the air. With her landing gear fully retracted, Lily whizzed past a row of tall trees, making them lean hard to the left from the force of the wind.

"Yo Sara! Get up here and watch this!"

The olive chopper in question started her rotors to follow the adrenaline-filled fighter into the sky.

She watched as Tabeth-Lily inclined into the clouds as she began to lift off the ground. Sara had seen this move all before... her friend would fly as high has possible before falling back down to earth in full afterburner. After breaking the sound barrier, Lily would level out and hopefully reach speeds beyond possible. _Or that's how the Hornet explained it._

With her eyes still narrowed in determination. Tabeth-Lily reached her desired altitude and rolled backwards, beginning her speedy desend.

The air was pushing hard against her as she tore through the puffy clouds and started to create a Mach cone around her sleek, feminine frame.

If Sara was any closer, the thunderous 'BOOM!' that shook the ground from Lily's sonic boom would've left a severe ringing in her ears.

"Come on Lily! You're almost there!"

The jet didn't hear her yelling as she plummeted below the line of clouds. Almost in a few hundred metres of hitting the ground before pulling up and soaring past at speeds beyond 1,915kph.

Lily's face was obviously screwed in concentration. Trying so hard to get over at least 2,200kph.

 _So close._

 _I could beat world records doing this! Just a bit... faster..._

"OH SHOOT!!!!"

It was already too late when Sara heard the ear-splitting squeal and saw the fighter only just miss a bunch of neatly cut trees for the 2nd time...

There was a certain smuggness written on the copters face as they then proceeded to land on the runway after Lily got over the initial shock.

With all three wheels safely on the ground, she made her way over to the Super Hornet who skidded rather easily across the tarmac as a way of quickly slowing down.

"What did I tell you? I KNEW you'd almost hit the trees!"

Lily snorted and rolled her eyes. Hot air blowing out from nostrils like an enraged bull. " _Stupid_ trees. If they weren't there I would've totally done it."

Sara was contemplating whether to send a snarky comment back at her when Lily nodded for them to leave. The burning sun already partially setting over the large, rocky mountains far off in the distance. Creating a fire-like blaze through the sky.

The town they lived in was nice to say the least. Built out in the state of Nevada, a little whiles drive from Las Vegas. Lily had been to the large, full-of-life city before only a few times in the last couple of years as it brought much needed excitement to her normally drab life.

She'd grown up in the small town with her parents and alongside her feisty little brother she ha- no, very much disliked.

Both girls didn't speak much on their way back home from the little 'airport' until Sara suddenly broke the dull silence between them.

"So... I heard you were leaving for the Navy in a little while? Don't think I'll be seeing you much then, will I?"

If Tabeth-Lily was drinking anything at that moment, its contents would've been spilt all over the pavement.

"What? Oh come on Sara. You've been my closest friend since- FOREVER! Distance won't change a thing! Do you really think there'd be anything worth distracting me from calling you up every once and a while?" Lily said.

The Apache's lips upturned in an oddly mischievous smile before responding, "Who knows Lils? I heard the Navy's got some pretty good studs _if ya know what I mean-_ "

"Hold up. Is that where you're going with this? The only guys there will be a bunch of roudy, sailor-mouthed jets whos egos are bigger than the ship itself." Lily spoke while taxiing next to the helicopter. The soft breeze cool against her grey coated fuselage.

"Well lucky you! You'll fit right in!" Sara beamed back.

The jet just smiled, "I probably will Sara. I probably will."

After stopping to say goodbye to her best friend when dropping her off at her family's hangar. Tabeth-Lily fell into a brisk taxiing pace as she made her own way home.

The small fighter glanced up as the sun sank over the large mountain ranges behind her. Lights on the now fairly empty street flicking on to light up the way with their hazy, yellow glow.

Lily's family's hangar wasn't the most grand in the surrounding area. Only just having enough room to fit her mother, father, brother and herself in comfortably without being confined to one or two rooms.

The lights were on inside as she came up to the two main doors. Nudging them open with her elongated nose, she wasn't surprised to find herself enormed in the smell of hot food wafting through the room.

It smelt like soup. Maybe including some sort of spice?

Shaking herself from the slight daze set upon her by the smell, Lily pulled up past her little 14 year old Super Hornet brother by the name of Reece. The jet barely acknowledging her with a slight flick of his wing as she passed. Completely imobilised by the SkyPad situated in front of him on the ground.

Her mother was the complete opposite. Randomly appearing behind the small jet and accidently freaking her out with a holler of her name.

"Mum! You don't need to yell. I'm already here." Tabeth-Lily turned to face her mother, Joyce. She was a relatively tall F/A-18, beautiful sparkling blue-grey eyes and the most generous smile. She loved her two kids as much as anything but disliked the idea of her eldest staying out far longer than necessary.

"Oh good! You're just in time for dinner."

Food wasn't exactly a necessity to the aircraft inhibiting the world. Except more so something to fill themselves with other than the same old oil sold literally everywhere it could be.

The stuff set out on a low wooden table seemed to be a variety of soup, oil, and a sort of 'cake' filled with a mixture of seeds and layered in cinnamon.

"Look who finally decided to return home. Done with trying to shatter all the windows in the neighbourhood?" Lily's father, another F/A-18 painted a dark tone of grey with blue outlines along his twin vertical stabilizers, said as his left eyelid rose in question.

Tabeth-Lily tried to hold back the small guilty feeling consuming her innards by putting on a slight smile. Of course she knew a sonic boom at such a low level would have the ability to shatter glass. She just didn't really think of it to be a huge deal while in the middle of doing an extreme manuvour.

Taking no extra time to wait, Lily tried as carefully as she could to eat the food served out in front her. Her parents had taught her enough in the way of manners.

Her brother though, having finally retreated from his device, was continually eating anything he could reach in a rather messy fashion.

While halfway through downing the freshly-made cake filled with a variety of seeds. Joyce randomly spoke up in her high pitched, enthusiastic voice.

"Ooooh Lily's leaving tomorrow! I'm so excited, aren't you?"

In an instant, the little grey jet almost choked on the contents of food still in her mouth.

"Wait. Tomorrow!? I thought I was leaving in like, 2 weeks!?" Lily responded from across the wooden table in shock.

Her mother just stared back questioningly, "I thought you knew. I told you they moved the day forward."

 _"S*."_ Lily cursed under her breath. She'd completely forgotten. Not just that but she hadn't even said a proper goodbye to her bestest of all friends, Sara.

"Language." Joyce said back in a relatively calm tone.

"I'll be able to talk to her later when I'm there. They probably won't mind." She though to herself as she finished off the remaining pieces of food scattered about in front of her.

Once done, it was goodnight to her family and off to what most would classify as a 'bedroom'. A fairly spacious room built off from the main hangar. Light blue paint covered the walls and a single window overlooked a field of long grass and flowers outside.

Tabeth-Lily took a long glance through the slightly dusty window. Sighing softly, her thoughts finally started to settle as she stared out upon all the flowers barely visible in the moons light shining down.

It was going to be a long day tomorrow, she just knew. But that didn't stop her from staring out the window for a few more minutes. Taking in all that she'd known and loved and where she'd spent her whole life since the very beginning.

Finally breaking from the trance-like state. Tabeth-Lily slowly moved back from the moonlit window and practically fell into the matress set out near her.

Lying in a heap, slender frame entwined in the warm, fuzzy covers. She's miss this. A lot. It was only then that she truly realised she'd probably not come back for years to come. She'd have to live side-by-side with her teammates. Out on a boat. In the middle of the ocean.

But somehow she felt it was worth it as she drifted from consciousness. It was her duty to protect and fight. It was in her blood.

 _And there's no way she'd back down._


	2. Chapter 2

The young F/A-18 awoke to the sound of her alarm next to her sleeping form. The blaring noise waking Tabeth-Lily so quickly she almost blindly hurled one of the three cushioning pillows in it's direction in an attempt to get just a few more minutes of peaceful rest.

Groaning loudly in annoyance, she pulled the blankets over her head. But once she was awake there wasn't much of a chance of her being able to fall back asleep with ease.

Shaking any feeling of sleep out of her head, Lily had found herself nearly trapped in the velvet blankets surrounding her. Trying to the best of her ability to untangle her landing gear and stabilizers from the blanketing. Lily slowly lifted her light frame off the matress and glanced up slightly. The sun's rays pooling through the barely open curtain to her left, leaving the small jet to bask in its warmth. Yellow glow reflecting off her light grey, metallic body.

Even from across the hangar, Lily caught scent of some enticing aroma wafting through the home. It smelt like... pancakes. Doused in fruits and whatever other sugary topping her father, Gerald, could find. _He always made the BEST pancakes._

Making her way out of her small 'bedroom', Lily dove into eating the food served out for her far faster than was necessary. She liked- no... _absolutely_ _loved_ pancakes. Quite obviously the hornet had a sweet tooth for stuff like that. Though sugar highs probably weren't the best thing for an already energetic aircraft of her breed.

Tabeth-Lily turned her front after hearing her mothers soft humming from behind her. The pancakes sugary topping of a 'whipped cream' like substance still stuck stubbornly to her upper lip as Lily quickly licked it off.

"I just can't believe it. You're 21 Lily. I remember when you were only little." Joyce's cheery smile would never get old. It always managed to light up the room like a ray of sunlight in a stormy sky.

Tabeth-Lily couldn't not send a smile back in her mother's direction. Still stuffing her face with the contents of food in front of her, the blue eyed Super Hornet took a fleeting glance up at the clock resting slightly lopsided on the wall and felt her jaw slacken.

It was 8:34am. Now that wouldn't really mean a whole heap in most cases except Lily was on a relatively tight schedule to fly off to her 'work and new home put into one'.

She WAS meant to be leaving at 8:50am. _The earlier the better they said on the note they sent her. Training starts early for new recruits._

Veering back from the low wooden table in a hurry. The female jet dashed around the hangar in a blur of grey, trying to find and put together any essentials she needed for her long flight and arrival to the ship she was stationed on with her new squadron. The Jolly Wrenches.

 _"The roughtest, toughest, meanest fliers in the Navy."_ Her grandfather had once said. The older legacy hornet had worked alongside the squdron as a flight instructor for their young and hot-blooded F-18 recruits before retiring to live out in California somewhere. He said she'd easily fit in with her determined spirit and sheer speed. Though Lily thought a bit differently...

She was probably going to be the ONLY female there besides maybe a few tugs here and there and some older officers. But no jets. Not one. She didn't HATE that completely as she'd probably get along quite well with them, but she'd be stuck with these guys out in the middle of quite literally nowhere for most likely a couple of years.

Trying not to sent her mind back to those thoughts, Lily took one last glance at her room. The decorative posters, the blue walls, the bed. She'd lived in this place since her earliest days and knew the sting of homesickness would come soon after.

Leaving the room, she only then realised just how big of a deal this was for her and her family... they'd never had anyone leave for a job somewhere out of the small, secluded town. Let alone join the armed forces.

Joyce was on the verge of tearing up as she clung to her only daughter in a sort of embrace that lasted the length of a few minutes. Gerald doing the same. Even Reece, the lazy 14 year old who wouldn't get off his SkyPad without a decent fight 'hugged' her as much as two planes could.

"Happy travels. Oh! And make sure you remember to call us sometime! We'll be looking forward to hearing how everything is going!" Her mother called out as Lily rolled out the hangars front door.

The cool breeze blew against her fuselage as she rolled along past rows of hangars and stores, all of which differed in size and shape. Cars were opening up shops along the road in front of her and a kind white sudan even said hi as she passed him fixing a pot of bright red flowers.

It was a little more busy once she reached the towns main airport in under 10 minutes. Tugs pulling heavy cargo to and from buildings to aircraft. Cars waiting up in the terminals for their flights to who knows where. And huge passenger planes glancing down at her in interest as they taxiied along the dusty runway or awaited their time to take off.

It was chaotic. But a controlled type of chaotic. Everyone had a job they were suppost to do and they got it done precisely.

The little Super Hornet weaved around a big airliner in an attempt to quickly reach the airports single runway.

 _"Tabeth-Lily requesting permission to take off."_ She spoke to the 3 tugs up in the control tower.

 _"Permission granted, Tabeth-Lily. Have a nice day."_ One replied back. His name was Andre, also known by the youngsters as 'the kind old tug who gives out lollies on his days off'. He was quite well known between the townsfolk. Funny thing was, everyone was pretty much well acquainted with others around them, even Lily for that matter (for good and not so good reasons). Most knew her as the dare-devil jet as her family was pretty much the only group of fighters to live there.

After completing a quick pre-check of all her flight systems and equipment, Lily unfolded her wings and started her engines.

In a split second she was off down the runway with a roar of her afterburners.

She felt the ground quickly disappear from under her landing gear as she acended into the cool morning air. A while ago the jet had been given the coordinates of a ship out in what was supposedly the Pacific Ocean.

Tabeth-Lily loved flying (though being a plane it was kind of obvious). The sensation of the wind against her wings. As well as being so high up and being able to get away from all the struggles on the ground. But most importantly, she loved flying for the speed and adrenaline.

As she reached a suitable cruising altitude, Lily glanced down at the fast moving world below her. The buildings were now only specks in the rough, earthy landscape.

After about an hour of flying at a relatively fast pace in a western direction, the dry landscape began making way for one of huge buildings and urban areas. Cars moved around in the hustle and bustle of city life below her.

She'd reached a city. Probably Los Angeles.

Lily had never left her home state before, let alone visited a city besides Las Vegas. So the sight was a rather interesting one for the F/A-18 zooming over all the towering buildings.

Before long, all that was visible was blue water in every direction...

2 hours.

3 hours.

4 hours.

5 hours of flying.

The time dragged on and on. Tabeth-Lily had next to nothing to rid her of her boredom besides singing to herself. Which she did without a second thought.

Being honest with herself, she knew she wasn't the best at singing. But she didn't care, nobody else was out flying to hear her besides herself.

Going through the lyrics of a song Sara had shown her a few weeks ago on FlewTube. One that seemed to be on the radio every 5 minutes but nobody really bothered to interpret the lyrics of. The only sounds now were of her voice, the waves below her, the wind and...

...thunder...

Tabeth-Lily had no reason to check the weather forecast before leaving but now so wished she had done so. Being out in the middle of the ocean there weren't any visible areas to land if the weather decided to knock her around for the hell of it.

She glanced around as heavy storm clouds were already blocking out almost all the light from the once bright sun.

Picking up speed, Lily quickly checked her coordinates again. She was still quite a few kilometres off from where they were leading her.

Busy trying to follow the coordinates, the bright flash of lightning near her sent Lily into complete shock. But she flinched and yelped suddenly when a deafening crack of thunder boomed in close proximity directly after. She had no choice but to try and fly through the clouds to cruise above them and not be able to see the ship she was looking for or fly under them and risk being zapped by lightning or crashing into the waves getting bigger by the minute.

So in split second decision-making, Lily pitched hard upwards and flew into the layer of black clouding.

Complete darkness surrounded her entirely for a few seconds and she could sense all the electricity in the air until she burst through the clouds.

A sense of relief washed over her as she shook a bit before steadying her wings. Now to try and find that ship somehow...

The storm clouds were thick. Impossible to look through. The jet's light blue eyes darted around for even a small opening but none were in sight.

She huffed loudly, watching as the many water droplets quickly dried off her light grey fuselage after flying through the rain.

"Oh come on! My first day and I can't even find the goddamn ship!?" Lily grumbled to herself with a long roll of her eyes, "There just HAD to be a thunder stor-"

Halting her little rant, Tabeth-Lily swore she heard a noise off in the distance. It sounded like thunder but had a distinct sound to it, almost like another plane...

Looking around for any airliners in sight. The sky above the storm was empty except for a few small clouds far above her. She flew around rather confused before gasping in surprise when a relatively large jet came down on her right side.

"Unknown aircraft. You are flying in restricted airspace. I advise you reroute now."

Tabeth-Lily glanced back at the plane. He was a F/A-18/E Super Hornet like her except was covered nose to tail in military decals and badges. And held actual weapons under his wings.

"Uh... I'm Tabeth-Lily. I'm meant to be on a boat, the Flysenhower right now but... I'm kinda lost." Lily laughed a tad bit nervously under her breath. To make the situation worse, she hadn't even been taught proper military lingo yet in her training prior to joining.

The other jet just looked at her slightly puzzled from behind his tinted visor before responding, "Very well. I guess you're one of the newbies they're talking about? Follow me to the boat."

Tabeth-Lily nodded, watching as the Super Hornet rolled to the left and flew off with her following in suit. The flight lasted not even a minute before he started speaking to someone. Most likely the captain of the ship.

Before long, the grey outline of an impressively big Nimitz aircraft carrier came into view on the horizon. Aircraft and helicopters circling the giant warship like flies.

"Alright. You know how to land, right?"

Lily glanced over at the fighter jet flying beside her.

Landing. The worst thing she was at doing... especially on a boat rocking wildly in the gale force winds and big waves. Well, what was the worst she could do?


	3. Chapter 3

The slippery flight deck was coming in fast. Really fast. Tabeth-Lily quickly lowered her tailhook and landing gear, frantically trying with all her might to slow down just a bit.

"Easy does it." The fighter jet beside her assured. Though it didn't do much as the huge carrier rocked harshly to the side with the force of the waves.

Almost completely overshooting the runway. Lily just caught one of the three wires and slammed rather ungracefully into the metallic deck of the ship with a forceful thud. The impact sending her wobbling on her wheels for a bit before coming to a fast halt.

Breathing in heavily to calm her racing nerves, Lily gingerly lifted her tailhook to allow the wire to slacken. She rolled over to a vacant spot on the flight deck and waited for her slightly unsteady breath to return...

The other Naval F/A-18 landed like it was completely second nature. Smiling once he found his way over to her.

"So... you're the new recruit huh?" He inquired after taxiing off the rain soaked runway.

"Yep. That's me." Lily laughed a little awkwardly, "Thanks for helping me out by the way. Landing on a carrier in this sort of weather isn't exactly my forte."

"No problem. Tabeth-Lily." He said while still grinning slightly, "Name's Echo if you haven't already noticed."

Lily then realised just how unobservant she really was. His name was literally WRITTEN OUT on his shining, cherry-red helmet in bolded white letters.

Taking a long glance at what was going on around her, Tabeth-Lily noticed the rain was still falling in bucket-loads onto the deck where other fighter jets and helicopters parked. Some chatting while others sat there almost completely expressionless as the heavy rain continued to drench them.

After taking in all that was happening around her in awe, Echo lightly tapped her on the wing with his own, "Training's most likely going to be held off until tomorrow by the looks of it, so in the mean time I'll show you where to get your squadron paintjob."

Lily nodded. Beginning to follow the other aircraft past a few helicopters and down a large elevator on the side of the ships large hull. Rocking sharply, Lily was forced to lock up her brakes to stop from sliding off the side of the elevator and into the wild waves below.

The elevator came to a grinding halt as it reached below the rain covered deck. Sounding a relatively loud thunk as it did of metal scaping against metal.

Shaking off the remaining water droplets still covering her fuselage and wings. Lily was in utter shock with what her bright blue eyes were met with...

Aircraft. Literally EVERYWHERE. F-18s were talking it up (loudly) to the left of the duo in a large clump. All of whom were chatting away like there was no tomorrow. To her right was a bunch of grey helicopters, also talking, though a fair bit quieter than their roudy Super Hornet counterparts.

Taxiing beside Echo, she unintentionally listened in on bits of their convosations. _Something about air races and spaghetti??_

Coming to a stop, Lily took notice of a small yellow tug off near the corner of the busy hangar. He seemed to be surrounded by a bunch of jumbled utensils and paint along with pieces of something that resembled big sheets of plastic.

"That's Dave. He'll get you in your new squadron colours."

Lily looked away, starting to roll in the direction of the tug. Once he looked over and saw her, Dave lifted a fork and called her over to a spot vacant with any utensils.

"Suppose your here for you're paintjob?" He inquired whilst lifting up a sheet of plastic and placing it to her left vertical stabilizer. Smoothing it out so it stuck neatly to the metal.

"Why else would I be here?" The female jet replied with a small roll of her eyes which went unoticed by Dave.

By the end of it, she was covered in bits and pieces of the plastic covering from her nose to tail. Retrieving a device from the ground beside him, Lily flinched when black paint was sprayed all over the area of her tail.

Dave added whites and yellows after completing the layer of black along her twin tails, canopy, and hood. Lily was forced to shut her mouth when he painted across her nose in a colour of royal blue as to stop from breathing in a large amount of it.

Once done with all the paint and little decals along her 'neck', Dave pulled up a large mirror.

She looked exactly like a true Jolly Wrench with an exception to her blue nose-cone and obviously smaller feminine build.

"We're not done just yet." The tug zipped over to a bunch of cardboard boxes and pulled out something from one of them. A helmet. A light blue helmet with two black, silver outlined lightning bolts and her name printed out in black letters.

"When the Captain told me of a speedy new recruit, I thought lightning bolts would best suit you." He said, getting Lily to lower her front so he could slip it onto her black canopy...

"OUCH! IT'S SQUEEZING MY HEAD!! I THINK MY BRAIN'S GONNA COME OUT..." She whined unhappily in annoyance, jerking away once the helmet was on.

Dave just shugged his forks, "Would you rather it fall off while you're flying?"

Snorting hot air out of her nostrils, the female Super Hornet began to move when the helmets visor lowered suddenly with a 'clack'. Completely shocking the jet.

"Oh yeah that. Need any help?" Pulling the tinted visor back into its rightful place, Lily responded with a 'thank you' towards the yellow tug as he moved off to fix up some of his painting utensils.

Finally being able to leave, Lily noticed Echo still sat in the same spot. Face void of any expression.

"I didn't know you'd still be here?"

"Don't really have much better to do so I thought I'd help our new recruit settle in on her first day on the Flysenhower." The red helmed Super Hornet replied to her.

It was probably late afternoon. The rain still pelting down relentlessly as the chatter of about 30 or so aircraft filled their ears. The boat rocking back and forth with the sea.

After a few seconds of silence between the two, Echo started to talk, "Dinner's going to be ready relatively soon in the mess hall over there so I suggest we just wait around here for a bit."

Lily slowly nodded, "What do you guys actually do around here when you're not, you know, training or out practicing for a mission?"

"Normally just talk for most of the off time we have. Though regular patrols with one other are a good way to stretch your wings and give an excuse to fly. Well, there's that or pranking... which I'd say is the most fun out of all the options." Echo said while sporting a grin.

"Wow... and I initially thought you guys were going to be totally serious. Aren't you the Navy?" The female F-18 questioned like it was obvious.

The other fighter jet almost choked on his own laughter.

"You don't even know half of it then. Just because we're in the Navy doesn't mean we can't goof off once in a while. Just, don't try and mess with some of the deckhands. They really don't seem to enjoy being covered in pink paint from a paint war gone wrong..." The oddly sheepish look Lily recieved most likely meant the jet wasn't lying about what he'd just said.

"What happened?"

"Bunch of us slightly older jets in the squadron decided to mess with a few newbies for laughs and it ended with a massive all out paint war. Turns out one of my pals accidently doused one of the tugs working on moving some weaponry in pink paint. He got grounded for a few months." Echo replied.

"Seriously?"

"No kidding. And that's only one of our squadron's crazy shenanigans."

Tabeth-Lily angled her front up slightly to look at Echo, "You mean to say that's not the only thing that's happened? Remind me to not be around you guys when April Fools comes around..."

After about an hour of straight up talking about anything that came to mind. The smell of food brought Lily away from the conversation she was having with the other F-18.

"Food-wise, is there anything worth hurrying in for?" Lily inquired, watching closely as some of the Naval aircraft began piling into the mess hall area of the USS Dwight D. Flysenhower. This situation brought her back to her years as a young adolescent, still in what most humans would classify as a 'school' of sorts. Where served food and oil became the reason most prop aircraft became the targets of the 'military breed' wanting more than their fair share.

Most of the food served to the Wrenches onboard the huge vessel was a mixture of vegetation and a type of seasoned meat.

Tabeth-Lily found herself parked by a low, white table that spread itself across half of the mess hall. Near where the large tv set hung on the wall. Echo was there already, and beside him a bunch of other jets all looking relatively similar except for eye and helmet colour.

"Recruits are over that way, newbie." The first jet to notice her said as he pointed his folded wing in the direction of another set of tables over to the left. Dark green helmet almost matching his eyes.

"Storm-" Another of the F-18s urgently responded. Obviously trying to apologise for Storm's mannerisms towards the new female recruit parked in front of them.

"Who gave YOU the right to tell me where I can and can't eat?" Lily snapped back. Though on the inside she just really wanted to not be the one to get picked on, on her first day.

You know when you meet someone. Know absolutely nothing about them. But still REALLY take a disliking to them? Well that's exactly what was going on between Storm and Lily. The atmosphere filling with the tension of the two jets.

Echo, taking notice of this tension, moved in and tried to defuse the situation, "Come on Storm, she's new. Give her a break will you?"

With a low huff, Storm lowered his stare with the female and went back to whatever had his interest beforehand...

Letting out a sigh she didn't know she was holding in. Tabeth-Lily went to move between Echo and another Super Hornet whom she hadn't gotten the name of yet. Both in a conversation where one would say something and the other would almost crack up in fits of laughter.

"Where'd you get that from?" Lily looked up from her food once she heard the Hornet with the red helmet speak to her.

"What? This cookie?"

"Yeah... they don't have any left at the moment. Can I have it? Please?"

Lily nearly burst out giggling at the look the he was giving her. Looking more or less like a begging puppy who wanted your leftover scraps of food.

"Seriously Echo? You should've just been faster at getting one for yourself in the first place." The other jet who Echo was talking to before cut in with a slight brow raise.

"I did help her with getting here in that horrid storm, remember?"

"So your gonna ask for HER food now?"

"Yeah."

Lily found herself torn between the two F/A-18E Super Hornets.

Glancing over at the still unamed aircraft, she slowly nudged the remaining food over to a very happy Echo next to her. Who gladly accepted the sugary treat with a wide smile.

"Couldn't have just had it yourself or given it to me?" The other Jolly Wrench joked.

"Firstly, he DID help me before... and secondly, I don't even know your name."

"Bravo." The jet replied casually, "...And I heard you're the new speedy female recruit who got caught in the thunderstorm? Cared to check the weather before you left?"

Tabeth-Lily leant onto her right landing gear, letting out a slightly nervous laugh,"Sorry but I really can't tell if you're trying to compliment me or not..."

"Both, I guess. And sorry about Storm over there. He seems to have thing with recruits. Not sure why though." The grey helmed F/A-18 said as Lily followed his gaze over to Storm parked a few metres away from him, Echo and herself.

"Maybe he-" Lily's next question was cut short when an aircraft over on the far side of the completely filled room yelled something loudly along the lines of 'TAKE COVER!'...


End file.
